In order to facilitate swimming at any given depth, scuba divers commonly wear an inflatable vest connected by control valve means and a flexible hose to the scuba tank. Manipulation of the control valve means may thus be used to regulate the net buoyancy of the diver and his equipment at any given depth. For rapid assent in an emergency the vest may be quickly inflated to greatly increase the net buoyancy of the diver to raise him to the surface.
While such vests theoretically enable the diver to control his net buoyancy at any particular depth their use has been limited by the excessive bulkiness of deflated vests having the buoyancy capabilities for use in relatively deep dives. Such bulkiness interferes with the diver's movements both while he is submerged and on the surface and makes storage and transportation of the vest difficult. It would, therefore, be desirale to provide an inflatable diving vest which is considerably smaller and more compact when deflated than are the diving vests of the prior art whereby they would be used more extensively.